Armour: Recent history in the NCAA tournament not been kind to Kansas

Nancy Armour | USA TODAY Sports

DES MOINES — Kansas doesn’t need a history lesson, thank you.

The Jayhawks are well aware their NCAA tournament ended in the second round the last two years, and in the Sweet 16 the year before that. They know that, even with their overall No. 1 seed, people are eyeing Saturday’s matchup with ninth-seeded UConn and wondering if it’s another early flameout in the making.

“We're not going to run from it. We have lost in the second round the last two years,” coach Bill Self said Friday. “But certainly I'm not going to use that as motivation, dwelling on the negative.”

He may not, but his players are.

The memories of those losses grate on them still. Each of the last two years, the Jayhawks were a No. 2 seed, with enough talent to make a deep run. Catch a few breaks, and a Final Four run wasn’t out of the question.

But injuries caught up to them in 2014, when they were taken out by Stanford. Last year, it was a Wichita State team driven to upstage the state’s favorite sons and claim Kansas bragging rights.

“A lot of us experienced that feeling after the loss, and it's something that we don't want to happen again,” Perry Ellis said. “So I would say there is a lot of motivation for us.”

Lessons, too.

Devonte’ Graham remembers the Jayhawks coming out against Wichita State last season and immediately being put on their heels. They never recovered.

“They had the momentum the whole game basically,” he said. “Like I said, we just gotta be the one who keeps attacking, and be the aggressor.”

Perhaps that was why Self repeatedly lit into his team during its first-round route of Austin Peay. Even when Thursday’s game was well in hand, the Governors no threat to that perfect history the No. 1 seeds have going, Self barked at his players for bad passes and botched defenses.

“What are you doing?” he bellowed at Svi Mykhailiuk after a mistake. “Good gosh!”

At places such as Kansas — and Kentucky and Duke and North Carolina — there is no margin for error. It’s the history, of course. But it’s the present, too, with rosters that remain intact for shorter times than a Hollywood marriage.

When the opportunity is there, you have to take advantage of it. Even if another presents itself the next year, the team won’t be the same.

Chances are good that at least one of the guard tandem of Graham, Wayne Selden Jr. and Frank Mason III will test the NBA waters. Ellis will certainly be gone, a senior who knows the next loss means the end of his career at Kansas.

“Definitely it's a drive in my game,” Ellis said. “Just knowing this is my last go-round, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to try to win.”

Perhaps that explains Ellis’ performance down the stretch.

Ellis takes plenty of good-natured ribbing about his, umm, mature looks — no, he did not take a decade off between high school and college, nor was he personal friends with James Naismith — and he will never be described as flashy. But his game has been as dazzling as anyone’s in the country these last few weeks.

The Jayhawks’ leading scorer at 16.8 points per game, Ellis has scored 20 or more in five of the last six. After shooting almost 53% for the season, he was 8 of 12 against Austin Peay.

“Perry is maybe as consistent of a performer that we have ever had since I've been coaching here,” Self said. “Sometimes with consistency comes boredom, though — because of what the expectations are. `You can just pencil Perry in for this.’

“Sometimes Perry hasn't had a 33 against Kentucky or some of the other big games that some of our other players have had,” Self added. “But if you look at it over time, he's probably about as efficient as anybody that we've had. He’s a rock. He is a guy that we look to score when we're struggling.”

The Jayhawks don't intend to do that against UConn. There is some history that needs no repeating.